Greatness can
be discerned early, and you’ll notice it after precisely one minute,
one second of ‘Miguel And The Living Dead’ when the light, jangling
guitar moves across the burning, buzzy bass before the band’s name is
chanted by way of a guttural chorus. Diverting rocky guitar twiddles zip through,
and they make this a wonderfully jabbering opener, but those simple light
touches show how easily they can light up a song. ‘Aliens Wear Sunglasses’
then hits a harder, leaner mood with these stern vocals pumping out over frilly
guitar coils and stompy drums, encapsulating their direct approach to feisty
Deathrock tunes. They do like taut beats and a very clipped, punky energy
makes everything so catchy.

‘Graveyard
Love Song’ is spookier fun, waltzing among the muck of a fizzy song
with a weird guitar shiver based on horror clichés which is a nice
touch. ‘Salem’s Lot’ has a lustier bloodshot wrath in it,
as they stagger forwards, the guitar held back behind the wary vocals and
somehow out of it comes a beautiful guitar line as good as anything from prime
time Psychedelic Furs, so go figure! ‘Night Of Terror’ also works
on harder music, providing a solid middle heart to the record, as the drums
churn behind madly driven singing, gentler guitar fills, and some keyboard
frills. ‘Killer Klowns From Outer Space’ opts for twiddly escapist
guitar and scampering drums but soon veers off the surfabilly path into cabaret
plonking piano and crooning mania which is impressively loose.

‘Black
Magic Sex Terror’ is more of the same, without distinctive individual
relish, clumping away, but ‘Sexy Velvet Shadow’ is stirring, as
resolute keyboards slug it out with wiggly guitar and stark drums; a compelling
melody boosted by more plaintive singing. ‘Train Of The Dead’
takes us into spaghetti territory with wistful whistling and fiddly guitar
busting a gut, and proves to be convincingly moody yet very swish and neatly
completed. ‘Ghostmaniac’ is a straightforward caper, and ‘Alarm!!!
(reprise)’ a bit of a sample-ridden dead end.

On this form
they’re frequently closer to Horrorpunk than Deathrock, with their tendency
towards humour, and yet the agile switches in mood, the almost nonchalant
confidence and modest charisma all work to the good. Every bit as good as
the Calabrese album, with atmosphere replacing their outright punch, this
is an excellent debut without actually being truly sensational. The signs
are there for something quite superb in the future for here is a band who
can carve out a new direction, but they’re still laying down some ground
rules, and getting their more obvious japes and scrapes out of the way. The
lovely part is their excitement, the confusing thing is their choice of subject
matter, because if they had less obvious targets they’d be huge!